COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Will Grier’s bounce-pass might’ve made Pittsnogle proud, but it only made Jake Spavital uneasy.
The uneasiness continued. A shotgun snap caught the QB unaware, and then two more Grier fumbles in the span of three plays, and then Gary Jennings contracted fumble fever, and then Grier forced a third-and-long interception.
And then?
Well, then West Virginia went into halftime leading by 35 points.
These pay-to-fillet games against FCS teams are so patently uneven it’s difficult to keep score based on, well, the score. You’re forced to make allowances, grade on a curve, and factor in the competition’s handicap.
BOXSCORE: West Virginia 59, Delaware State 16
After West Virginia ultimately destroyed Delaware State 59-16, I couldn’t discern how much satisfaction to take from it. Speaking with players and coaches didn’t clear it up.
While Dana Holgorsen came off “happy with the way the guys attacked the week,” Grier called the lack of readiness “unacceptable.” Spavital lamented how his offense “didn’t have any pop,” while three-time touchdown-maker Justin Crawford sensed the energy was pretty good.
Nattering nabobs of negativity will shred aspects of this performance, such as a concerned reader who wrote: “This team lacks intensity. Maybe 6-6.” He sent that email at 12:47 p.m., before the first quarter ended.
This also was around the time West Virginia used a game break to brandish its new hall-of-fame class, a group that included March Madness legend Kevin Pittsnogle. Lionized for those huge shots he made in the NCAA tournament, but who recalls how he fared against Coppin State in early December?
So goes the legacy of Delaware State 2017, a contest to be forgotten before WVU’s $500,000 check clears.
Grier overcame his butterfingers to hurl three touchdowns and surpass 304 yards, exiting after one second-half drive. His backup, Chris Chugunov, appeared perfectly functional in garbage time and joined the touchdown parade.
Tony Gibson’s first-string defense, shaken by an embarrassing bust on the opening series, unshook itself to yield, essentially, nothing more. (That field goal that stemmed from Grier handing Delaware State the football at the 6-yard line was a quick-change win. The Hornets’ 82-yard fourth-quarter drive came against a hodgepodge of second-stringers and scout-teamers.)
“I was happy with the 1’s,” said Gibson, pointing out that his group ditched the scouting report early. “(Delaware State) knew they couldn’t protect, so that was the most snaps of unbalanced I’ve ever seen in one football game. They had one snap of unbalanced on film coming in, so it’s not like we spent a lot of time on it.”
Gibson carried no delusion about his guys playing anywhere near fever-pitch. A week’s worth of warnings couldn’t make the Hornets’ look any fiercer.
“That’s what you get when you play a I-AA team,” Gibson said.
Crushing a bottom-of-the-MEAC program doesn’t typically prepare you for Big 12 competition, though with Kansas on deck for the league opener, some of the similarities are valid.